EXCLUSIVE: The cost of creating genuine competition in the home and car insurance market can be revealed for the first time — and it is just 10 cents.

As a majority of consumers report it’s too difficult to compare insurance products — and thousands call for a comprehensive, government-run comparison website to fix the problem — it has emerged that the bill to set up the most sophisticated such site in the world, Norway’s Finansportalen, was just $2.2 million. That’s less than 10c per Australian.

Two similar sites the Federal government already runs cost even less.

Finansportalen has been cited by Australia’s corporate regulator, ASIC, as an example of how to “drive competition” and “enhance competition”. Its annual running costs, which are less than the set-up price, are met from the public purse. But other nations such as Ireland fund theirs with a tiny levy on financial services providers.

The costings are found in a World Bank report which says government-run comparison sites are better than those that are privately run because of their “objectivity and transparency”, “greater number of products and providers” and “complementary financial guidance and educational tools”.

In other words, they overcome all the objections Big Insurance has.

Many consumers want increased competition among car and home insurers.Source:Supplied

None of the four largest insurers currently participates in privately run comparison sites, some of which showcase policies sold by their owner.

A spokeswoman for one of the four, QBE, said it wouldn’t until they “can adequately reflect the total value of a policy, rather than focusing on price”.

Nick Xenophon Team leader Senator Nick Xenophon during a motion in the Senate. Picture: AAPSource:AAP

Within the Government there is caution partly due to fear of a repeat of Kevin Rudd’s ill-fated Grocery Choice and Fuel Watch proposals.

But there is an acknowledgment of the success of the government-run health insurance comparison service, privatehealth.gov.au, which is more akin to what a general insurance comparison service would be like. It costs $145,000 a year to run and $1.4 million to set up.

The cost of building and running the government’s North Queensland home insurance comparison site for three and a half years is $3.1 million.